Remember Humphrey Morgan Howells (1796-1877)? He appeared in early editions of Mountain Stories (see 8 January 2014, ‘The extraordinary Walls of Jerusalem stock route’; 4 March 2014, ‘The European discovery of the Upper Mersey’; and, 20 May 2015 ‘Humphrey Howells and the Lake Mackenzie pencil pine fence’). Howells was an English immigrant who arrived in Tasmania with his wife Ann in 1824 and was allocated an initial land grant of 600 acres located on the Shannon River north of Bothwell at a property he called ‘Southernfield’. In the 1840s he found himself short of a high country summer grazing run and took up a lease far across the Central Plateau at a site that came to be known as Howells Plains in the Upper Mersey Valley. Here, at a place later generations of Mersey mountain cattlemen called Jimmy Jones Plain, he built a stockman’s hut at which a stockman was stationed for a number of years. You might also recall that Howells developed an extraordinary stock route that began near Great Lake and extended through the central chamber of the Walls of Jerusalem. Howells abandoned Howells Plains around 1850 and took up a new grazing lease near Yeates Lagoon at Lake Mackenzie which he and his eldest son John maintained until around 1860.

In 2014 I was approached by Chris Howells, a mainlander and a third generation descendant of Howells. Chris was exploring his family history and had learned about Howells Plains. Chris was fascinated by the stock route that Howells created so much so that in 2012 he and his eldest son walked its western section, or at least the general route the track took. I subsequently provided Chris with information I had about the leases Howells had at Howells Plains and near Lake Mackenzie and other bits and pieces. In 2015 one key piece of information I was able to convey was that Hydro Tasmania had drained Lake Rowallan to do some maintenance on the dam and that Mountain Stores subscriber Rod How had found the site of Howells’ 1840 hut site shown originally on surveyor Scott’s 1848 map of the area. Chris expressed an interest in seeing the historic sites associated withHowells, namely Howells’ 1840 Jimmy Jones hut site, Howells’ 1850 Lake Mackenzie site, the Shepherds Hut and the pencil pine fence near Lake Balmoral. I put him in touch with Rod who guided Chris to these sites in January 2015. Chris was very excited by this experience and returned the following year to Tasmania to show members of his extended family a number of those key sites.

Three generations of Howells on Howells Bluff with Lake Rowallan in the background, 2016. Photo courtesy Chris Howells

In the Mountain Stories edition of 4 March 2014 (‘The European discovery of the Upper Mersey’), I told the story of Howells' stockman’s hut on the eastern bank of the Mersey north of the Fish River confluence. The remains of this hut, I noted, were visible into the 1950s and were well known to many local mountain cattlemen families. One of the features of this site, situated on a little plain known locally as Jimmy Jones Plain, was a large iron pot.

In May 1951 a Jubilee Show was held at Mole Creek as part of a national celebration to mark 50 years since Federation. Local history was a key element of this celebration with families putting their historical treasures on display. The Walters family who had held land in the Upper Mersey since 1876 thought the pot at Jimmy Jones Plain was an important part of local history and brought it out to Mole Creek for the show. A newspaper reporter covering the event was told that Jimmy Jones Plain was once a hideout for the notorious bushranger Brady and that the pot was originally owned by Jones who was forced to cook meals in it for Brady and his gang.

Iron pot at Horse Plain skin shed immediately prior to being taken out to Mole Creek for the Jubilee show, April 1951. Photographer unknown. Courtesy Kay and Alan Walters.

I came across the pot in the 1980s at the Mole Creek home of Dick Miles (a Walters’ descendant). His wife Enid was growing flowers in it. When Dick and Enid passed away the pot transferred to Andrew Walters of Mole Creek. On his last visit to Tasmania, Chris, his son and grandson were able to meet Andrew and see the pot for themselves. They were able to handle it understanding that it was possibly once owned by their ancestor who may have transported it in a bullock dray across the Central Plateau in the 1840s and that for a century it lay in the ruins of ‘Mr Howells Hut’ at Jimmy Jones Plain.

Three generations of Howells with Andrew Walters and the iron pot at Mole Creek. Photo courtesy Chris Howells

By public demand - Mountain Stories: Echoes from the Tasmanian high country

In response to demand from Mountain Stories subscribers, I have put together a collection of over 50 of the best of the Mountain Stories series together with never-before-published material (and some great historical photographs) to create a new book Mountain Stories: Echoes from the Tasmanian high country. The book is currently being shipped from its overseas printer and will be available in early to mid December.

Signed copies can be ordered from this website for $49.95 + postage. Mountain Stories subscribers who purchase from the website will also receive a free pack of Tasmanian High Country Huts greeting cards valued at $14.95.

A live Facebook virtual book launch - Sunday 11 December at 2 pm.

I will be conducting a virtual launch of the book on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mountainhistory at 2pm on Sunday December 11. During this live launch I will introduce the book and respond to any questions you may wish to pose. Send written questions through to me by Friday 9 December. Register your interest in participating here.

Cannabilizing old huts: an Arm Valley case study.

The Tasmanian high country fur trade collapsed virtually overnight in the early 1950s due to plunging international fur prices. Hunters abandoned their runs with many taking up employment in the emerging forest industry or working for the Hydro. A few men, however, particularly those who enjoyed the hunting lifestyle, kept a close eye on fur prices and, when opportunities emerged, returned sporadically to hunting. In the Mersey Boy Miles, Max How, Alf Walters, Basil Steers and Ted Gale were typical examples. A number of these latter day hunters either repaired existing huts and skin sheds or built new ones but one thing they all did was to recycle building materials from old huts. It was far easier to strip eucalypt slabs and palings from abandoned huts than it was to go to the trouble of finding a good splitting tree and split new timbers. This practice was widespread and partly accounts for the few snaring huts or skin sheds that remain today.

The cannibalization of old huts in the Arm Valley provides a good example of the practice. Timbers from the 'Peg Hut’ built around 1877 (see Mountain Stories, 14/12/14) were used to build Os How's hut c. 1930. A few of these same timbers were later recycled again to build Max How's skin shed in 1967 (see Mountain Stories, 17/7/16).

Timbers from Arthur How's Hut, built not long after 1907 (see Mountain Stories, 03/01/15) were used by Boy Miles to build a freestanding skin shed in the Arm following the flooding of Walters Marsh and the Horse Plain under Lake Rowallan in 1967. Max How also used material from the same hut to build an extension on to his skin shed c. 1980.